Lancashire County Cricket Records 1865-1908

Martin Chandler | 8:50am BST 29 September 2024

Published: 2024
Pages: 102
Author: Swindells, Thomas
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 3.5 stars

There was a time, not so long ago, when producing facsimile editions of scarce books from the distant past was almost de riguer amongst book dealer publishers. In the last decade or so the steady flow has however slowed to a trickle and, without carrying out a great deal of research, I suspect this one is the first for the best part of a decade.

And this one isn’t an exact facsimile. If it were it would be a small format paperback, whereas Red Rose Books have produced a robust hardback that is A5 in size and, whilst it does faithfully reproduce each of the 94 original pages of the original it also contains a two page introduction from respected historian Gerry Wolstenholme.

The introduction is an important part of the book because of the light it sheds on who Thomas Swindells was. In the first decade of the twentieth century gathering cricket statistics was not the relatively straightforward task it is today, and it is interesting to learn something about Swindells’ life and the sort of man he must have been.

There is no narrative content to Swindell’s book, so the inevitable question is why should anyone be interested in a statistical work that is well over a century out of date? As far as I can see there are a couple of possible reasons for that, the first of which is the period advertisements that appear in the book, three of which relate to sporting goods supply business run by Lancashire cricketers; JT Tyldesley, Alec Watson and Albert Ward.

But the main reason is the simple one that some of these records are fascinating. It is true that many of them are now easily accessible online, but not all. The first to catch my eye was a list of Lancashire’s heaviest defeats. The worst of all, by an innings and 204, was inflicted by Cambridge University in 1907.

Which is where things do get interesting. The scorecard for that match is illuminating. The Lancashire side was a strong one, and included Test players JT Tyldesley, Jack Sharp and Harry Dean. There were no Test players in the University side however, yet they batted first and scored 366 before skittling the Red Rose for 97 and 65. I shall be looking for further information on that one, especially as to what became of Harold Goodwin, who contributed 47 to the University’s total and then took 7-33 and 5-29 – he played 39 First Class matches in total, and was killed in action at Arras in 1917.

Other records I intend to look up are some from the list (surprisingly long) of men who had bowled unchanged throughout an innings, and those (again surprisingly long) of men who have taken five or more wickets in an innings at an average of less than three. The lists of substantial partnerships also promise further opportunities for tracking down the scorecards that go with some of those.

So there is rather more to attract a buyer to Lancashire County Cricket Records 1865-1908 than is readily obvious, albeit I suspect that very few buyers will not be Lancashire supporters. But those who are interested nonetheless need to move quickly as there are only thirty copies of this particular limited edition available – they can be purchased via the Red Rose Books’ website.